Quotes from work
The Grail Quest

Bernard Cornwell

The Grail Quest is a historical fiction novel series written by Bernard Cornwell dealing with a 14th-century search for the Holy Grail, around the time of the Hundred Years' War. The stories follow the adventures of the fictional Thomas of Hookton as he leaves Dorset after the murder of his father and joins the English Army under Edward III as an archer. In Harlequin he is involved in battle in Brittany and subsequently at the Battle of Crécy. The archers are the first soldiers to be deployed along the crest of the hill at Crécy, providing cover before the battle starts for the knights building a system of ditches, pits and caltrops below to maim and bring down the enemy cavalry. The battle is a decisive victory for the English, even though they were outnumbered.

“It would cause nothing but madness, Thomas thought. Men would fight for it, lie for it, cheat for it, betray for it, and die for it. The Church would make money from it, it would cause nothing but evil, he thought, for it stirred horror in men's hearts. So he would do what Planchard had said he would do. 'Hurl it into the deepest sea,' he quoted the old Abbott, 'down among the monsters, and tell no one.'”

Bernard Cornwell The Grail Quest

The Grail Quest, Heretic (2003)